For years Democrat cities have used junk climate science to sue American oil companies into bankruptcy.
Now the Supreme Court justice who wrote the blueprint for that junk science is deciding their case.
And when Senator Collins asked her about it under oath Kagan gave an answer nobody expected.
Kagan Wrote The Foreword Judges Now Use To Decide Climate Lawsuits
Justice Elena Kagan agreed to write the foreword for the Fourth Edition of the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence.
The manual is the playbook federal judges reach for when they need to evaluate scientific evidence in a courtroom.
Buried inside was a chapter titled "Climate Science."
That chapter handed climate lawsuit plaintiffs a roadmap for winning over judges who doubt their science.
Republican lawmakers and a coalition of GOP attorneys general read the chapter and called it what it was – propaganda dressed up as science.
The criticism got so loud the Federal Judicial Center pulled the chapter entirely.
But Kagan's name was already stamped on the cover.
Now the Supreme Court is set to hear Suncor Energy v. Boulder County this October – a case asking whether Colorado can bankrupt oil companies using the exact legal theories that chapter promoted.
Nearly Two Dozen Groups Demanded She Step Aside
The Judicial Crisis Network led a coalition of nearly two dozen conservative legal organizations that sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
They wanted an investigation into whether Kagan violated federal ethics law by refusing to recuse herself.
JCN president Carrie Severino did not mince words.
"She must recuse herself immediately," Severino said.
The coalition argued Kagan had already prejudged the case years before a single brief was filed.
Senator Chuck Grassley now chairs the committee that received the letter.
Collins Asked The Question Kagan Never Wanted On Camera
Kagan rarely testifies before Congress.
But this month she sat beside Justice Amy Coney Barrett for a budget hearing – and Senator Susan Collins seized the moment.
Collins asked Kagan directly about the climate chapter controversy on camera.
Kagan's answer stunned even her critics.
"I hadn't read the chapter in question prior to that time," Kagan told lawmakers.
She still has not read it.
A sitting Supreme Court justice put her name on a document she never actually reviewed – then left that same document sitting in the record of a case she refuses to leave.
Steve Milloy, one of the letter's signers and a former Trump transition adviser, wasn't buying the excuse.
"You don't get to sign and endorse things you don't know anything about," Milloy said.
He's right.
Trump Torched The Manual And Ordered A Federal Review
President Trump was not about to let this slide.
He branded the reference manual fraudulent and bogus in a Truth Social post blasting the entire project.
"These Manuals have been totally DISCREDITED," Trump wrote.
Trump said the same discredited research had already steered judges toward costly climate rulings against American companies.
He ordered federal suspension and debarment officials to review the conduct behind the manual altogether.
The message from the White House was unmistakable – Kagan's foreword is now a liability she cannot explain away.
This isn't the first time a liberal justice conveniently discovered a climate conscience only when it served an agenda.
Back in 2015 conservative groups demanded Kagan and Ruth Bader Ginsburg recuse themselves from the same-sex marriage cases after both justices had personally officiated same-sex weddings before the Court ever ruled.
Both refused.
Kagan has built a career deciding when the rules about impartiality apply to her and when they conveniently don't.
Every time the answer benefits the same side.
Colorado's local governments are now leaning on a legal framework Kagan's own foreword personally vouched for – in writing, with her name attached.
The excuse that she "didn't read it" doesn't erase her signature.
The Supreme Court has no binding ethics code forcing her hand, which means the only real check on Kagan is public pressure.
Grassley's committee can hold hearings, but nothing forces her to answer a single question about Suncor before oral arguments in October.
Now she gets to decide from the bench whether the very theory her foreword vouched for bankrupts American energy companies.
That's not a conflict of interest – that's the whole ballgame.
Sources:
- "Elena Kagan faces calls to recuse from Suncor energy climate case," Fox News, July 2026.
- "Obama-Appointed Liberal Justice May Not Be Impartial After All, Group Warns Senators," Daily Caller, July 13, 2026.
- Carrie Severino, "Kagan's climate conflict is obvious – recusal shouldn't be optional," Washington Examiner, July 2026.
- "Justice Kagan Endorsed a Climate Chapter She Admits She Never Read," National Review, July 2026.
- Ward Clark, "Kagan Now Under Fire for Climate Science Endorsement," RedState, July 24, 2026.
- Jim Hoft, "President Trump Exposes National Academy of Sciences for Publishing Fraudulent, Biased Climate Manuals Used by Federal Judges," The Gateway Pundit, July 2026.
